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In this, the second article of the Introduction to MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services series, we created similar dimensions to those with which we worked in our first lesson, Creating Our First Cube. We did this with a focus toward using the Dimension Editor to illustrate some of the myriad options that this tool offers for a more flexible, custom design. To prepare for this approach toward understanding dimension design and construction in Analysis Services, we created a new OLAP database and discussed the differences between approaching dimension design with the Cube Editor, versus undertaking the process with the Cube and Dimension Wizards that we used previously.

We first undertook the creation of a single-table dimension, the simpler of two main types of dimensions, before moving to the construction of the slightly more complicated multi-table dimension. Once we performed the various general tasks involved in recreating our dimensions from Lesson One with the Dimension Editor, we turned an eye toward setting and modify various member and dimension properties for model optimization and other purposes, as an extension of our use of the Dimension Editor to manipulate dimensions, and the hierarchical levels that exist within dimensions. We exposed several considerations that often arise in dimension design and construction, and explored numerous options that we can leverage in the Dimension Editor to preempt issues, and to provide effective reporting and analysis environments for organizational Information Consumers.

Our example will continue through the next two lessons, Handling Time Dimensions and Parent-Child Dimensions, leading to the fifth lesson, Working with the Cube Editor. In Lesson Five we will pull together the components that we have constructed in Lessons Two through Four, to assemble a cube similar to, but more sophisticated than, the cube we generated in the first lesson.